I’m shoppin’!
Read The Book List is a list that enables a reasoned mind to choose for himself covering both sides of the question.
Which have ya read?
Which did you like?
Which do you recommend?
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14 Comments!
I’ve read about half of ‘em. Some, like Plato’s Republic, you can do without actually reading and just go to Masterplots or some other summary/synopsis of great books and get the picture, as you can with Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, and a whole buncha other dead Germans and Brits.
Some of those titles are pretty heavy sledding, such as Mein Kampf (turgid and self-repetitive), and others, such as de Tocqueville, are so prophetic that they scare the hell outta you.
In today’s hi-speed society, I’d read a precis or at least a flyleaf before investing a lot of time and money into many of ‘em. Ayn Rand, of course, is a good read anytime, and I can’t believe any list would show Foundation without at least title mention of the rest of the trilogy. Besides, you can’t go wrong with Asimov, Heinlein, or Clarke.
Incidentally, when I abandoned academia a few years ago, I more or less quit reading (except for blogs) . . . tired of it after grading all those goddam student papers for so many years and keeping up with trends in education and all.
‘Sides that, my eyes keep gettin worse and worse, and I have an advanced case of CRAFT, so what’d be the point!
I wrote a long piece about my 500 book library & posting it—caused it to fucking disappear!!!!!
Pissed, here is the short version: The best book I ever read was Winston Churchill`s “The River Wars”! Reading books since age 11, when cousin Mason/(age 15…) died one month after getting a red Indian motorcycle w stick shift and I started reading his books. Ain`t gonna say no more……….
Wow!! Claire I’ve been wondering when you’d post a book post again. I’ve been reading books written in the 80′s and 90′s. Some by Scott Turow,David Wiltse,and a couple more recent by Greg Iles. I got talked into reading the Hunger Games most of the younger people I know loved them and the movie– but– I didn’t Love them but ??? I’ve been so upset over this new Middle East uprising so when we were going to the camp in the woods this week-end I took the book– The Wedding Guest by David Wiltse and the first page was Headline,The New York Times—Shah leaves Iran for indefinite stay: Crowds exult,Many Expect long exile. Fighting continues in Terhan . I couldn’t get away from it!!!— altho it was a good book.
It’s a great book list but—–what’s going on in this world now is enough for me. I read to get away from it all.
One only needs to read one of the pro-socialist books and that merely to understand what claptrap is being proposed (e.g. Marx). More would risk overtaxing the logic-processing lobe of one’s brain.
That should be done only after reading a good treatise or two on the virtues of free markets and individual liberty (e.g. Friedman & vonMises), because one needs a good grounding in reality to avoid falling under the seductive spell of the socialist Utopians’ siren songs and lotus orchards.
After that pro-socialist book, read Hayek to get the vile taste out of your brain. Okay, now you can safely and confidently read Rand and the Federalist Papers (also, the Anti-Federalist Papers).
Independent of all that, I strongly recommend Machiavelli, SunTzu, and vonClausewitz as primers on state power and strategy in its raw form (i.e. independent of -ism). I do need to re-read vonClausewitz, though; because I think it’s lost a lot of its relevance in the 21stC.
What’s with those prices? The Critique of Pure Reason caught my eye, so I clicked the link. $170.10 for the ebook? I figured it had to be a joke or a typo. The other books have similar pricing. The cheapest are $3.99 ebooks. Compare that with Gutenberg.
There are plenty of places on the web to discuss books. Why does this site deserve a special mention? Sorry to sound all negative about it, but I don’t see anything that makes me want to revisit the site.
Good find Claire – I’d like to think that academia endorse this technique, but … . My sense is that people who read stuff from the left column do it to fortify firmly held convictions, and would no more read Adam Smith that listen to Rush Limbaugh. People reading right column materiel are forced to read the left column in order to graduate, which is why they are so grounded.
And speaking of Adam Smith– the Machiavelli juxtaposition is peculiar. But Paul Krugman – Sun Tzu?? If Krugman must be included, his counterpart ought be the chemist who developed Lithium.
The Federalist, Plato’s Republic, The Art of War, Mein Kampf (that was an ordeal). I am embarrassed to say I have not read anything by Milton Friedman or Ayn Rand. Nor have I read the Anti Federalist.
I think they’re a little off-base, especially with the classics on the left.
And they seem to be a bit devoted to Ayn Rand.
COL Jerry: I read Churchill’s The 2nd World War, and most of his History of the English-Speaking People (that is shorter than the “War”). Since he was a bit of an insider during the War, it’s real good history.
iD (#7): Save yourself $170 and skip Hegel entirely. As they say in Formerly Great Britain, “nothing to see here, move along”. You can find a lot about him online.
PeggyU: If you’ve read the Federalist (or most of it), you’re ahead in the game. The “Anti-Federalist Papers” has all the arguments Against a strong federal government. Not everybody thought a strong federal government was a good idea. The trick is getting the balance right – and I think we’ve gone way too far in giving the Federal government too much power. Power is easy to give, hard to take back.
For Friedman, start with “Free to Choose” or “Capitalism and Freedom”.
iD – I heard about it on the radio and it looked like a good juxtaposition list. I know y’all are savvy enuff to find the 1¢ used books on amazoon or other resources on Teh InnarWebz.
Recommend: Mises, Socialism, and Hayek, The Road to Serfdom (although his The Constitution of Liberty was more thorough). I preferred Friedman’s Capitalism and Freedom to his later Free to Choose.
Rather than actually trying to read Mises, et al, I visit http://mises.org/ when in need of refreshment..
Rather than actually trying to read Marx, et al, I read history.
Malcolm (12)
Amen on Friedman’s “Capitalism and Freedom” rather than “Free to Choose.”
That’s actually what I was thinking of in my reco (6).
Dang! Could’a sworn that was on the list.
(What? Hey, I’m 65, gimme a break on the situational-awareness lapses.)